Management

NAB 2019: MESA Members Bring Content Protection, Digital Asset Management Know-How (SCN)

This year’s NAB Show is shaping up to be the largest to date, with nearly 100,000 attendees from 165 countries and 1,700-plus exhibitors descending on Las Vegas April 6-11. Among those exhibiting are nearly 50 members of the Media & Entertainment Services Alliance (MESA), bringing solutions ranging from content protection, to cloud technologies, to post-production solutions, to new workflows.

“It’s phenomenal the litany of progressions that occur from one NAB to the next,” said Ryan Steelberg, president of MESA member Veritone. “This year, we are eager to understand how other organizations are innovating in areas such as advertising efficacy, ROI analysis, and archive monetization — and to reveal the use cases we have been solving within M&E with resounding success.”

From Avid’s co-located Connect event, to the Content Delivery & Security Association’s (CDSA) second-annual Cybersecurity & Content Protection Summit, to MESA’s annual, must-attend party at the Mirage, here’s a brief look at what to expect at the NAB Show.

• Avid Technology gets the NAB Show started with its co-located Avid Connect gathering, taking place April 6-7 at the ARIA Las Vegas. The annual events offers a glimpse at what’s ahead for media and entertainment technology, offering insights into shifts in viewer behavior and the increased competition in content creation and distribution.

• CDSA’s Cybersecurity & Content Protection Summit is a can’t-miss half-day conference April 7 at the Westgate Hotel for those in the media and entertainment cybersecurity and content protection business, with this year’s program featuring an increased emphasis on the role that technology providers play in securing workflows, content distribution and the viewer experience. MESA members SHIFT, Akamai, IBM Security, Microsoft Azure, Convergent Risks, Media Science International and the Trusted Partner Network are sponsoring. To register, click here.

• The afternoons of April 8-9 will see MESA’s content solutions strategists guiding NAB attendees through a two-hour tour of the hottest media management providers on the show floor. Mary Yurkovic, director of smart content for MESA, will lead each group of M&E executives and content owners and at each stop will explore the technology, review capabilities, discuss challenges and current trends in the asset management space. To sign up for the DAM Tour, click here.

• On April 9, the NAB Show will host the annual 4K 4Charity Fun Run, a 2.5-mile run and walk event that raises money for diversity and inclusion initiatives. This year, the event will sponsor the nonprofit Girls Who Code organization. Sponsors of the event include MESA members AWS Elemental and Dolby. To register, click here.

• On April 9-10 at the Westgate, Amazon Web Services will hold a brand new AWS Workshop event, offering two days of hands-on labs and workshops, geared directly toward the media and entertainment crowd. For more information, click here.

• Sprinkled throughout the Las Vegas Convention Center will be several areas featuring keynotes and exhibitors for dedicated technologies, including the In-Vehicle Experience, Innovation Pipeline Theater, the eSports Experience, IP Showcase, Advanced Advertising Demo Theater, Destination 5G, the ATSC 3 Academy and the AI+Cloud Campus. For more information, click here.

• The evening of April 9 sees MESA host its annual member party, with members and more than 400 invited guests — including technology executives from every studio, network and independent — gathering for cocktails and conversation. Salesforce, NAGRA and Testronic are among those sponsoring. For more information, click here.

In the weeks before NAB, MESA will be previewing what each of its members are bringing to the show. Click here for the MESA@NAB news feed.